The ″Management″ of Demand for Health Care

The unacknowledged and obscure mechanisms which “inflate” demand for health care provisions, thereby exacerbating the persistent gap between demand and the resources available to meet it, are considered. It is suggested that the structural scrutiny of emergent medical research ‐ alongside health promotion measures ‐ could be used as a means to moderate health care demand. It is argued that anti‐utilitarian objectives to this approach may be equally levelled at laissez‐faire justifications for unfettered research.